As human beings, we are imperfect, and so are our laws and the way we implement them. The state should not carry out any execution while so many unresolved legal questions about the process remain. We should be investing in violence-prevention programs, instead of wasting money killing prisoners.

It is ridiculous that California is willing to spend millions of dollars to jump-start executions and build a new death row, while the state doesn’t even have a budget and is furloughing workers. The death penalty costs millions more than life without parole.

There is no humane way to kill a prisoner. We should stop the tinkering and just abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is a failed public safety policy. It doesn’t deter crime and it doesn’t make us safer.

The United States is one of the few democracies that still kills prisoners. Let’s stop throwing good money after bad and end it already. Unlike releasing prisoners after their innocence is proven, once a man is killed, he can’t be resurrected, a mistake that cannot be undone.

– Andrea Leon-Grossmann, Los Angeles

Teachers lack time, not drive

While Wayne Lovett (“Teachers’ work ethics changed,” Letters to the Editor, Thursday), might have been shocked and saddened when reading of a teacher who plans to grade only a third of the essays he assigns, I wasn’t at all shocked by his judgmental letter. In fact, I expected it. I am saddened, though, at the lack of understanding some people have for the realities public educators face today.

Lovett’s letter is an insult to educators, and specifically to a high school teacher he likely doesn’t know, Mark Duvall.

I will give Lovett the benefit of the doubt and assume he is insulting Duvall out of ignorance rather than malice. I assume he does not know how many students high school teachers have today.

Duvall has 40 students per class. And as Torrance High School has six regular periods in a school day, he could have as many as 240 students.

There simply is not enough time in the day for any one person to grade every single essay assigned in all his classes. This has nothing to do with work ethics and everything to do with time.

– Tom Doyle

El Segundo

Mr. Lovett, do you know any teachers? When was the last time you were in a classroom?

My daughter is a teacher and she gets to her classroom at 7:45 a.m. and does not leave until 5:45 p.m. She buys supplies for her classroom. She must file a classroom plan each week because there are federal guidelines on how much time she must spend on math, history, reading comprehension, reading and so forth. What was acceptable for teachers to do in the 1960s is not acceptable now.

We the people demand accountability from our teachers, thus each day, each hour and each minute must be allocated and documented. Before you categorize teachers as not having a work ethic, why don’t you volunteer to be a classroom aide, or shadow a teacher from first grade to 12th grade? Then and only then would you be in a position to criticize our teachers who spend six to 10 hours a day with our children. I am very proud of my daughter the teacher and her work ethic is extraordinary.

In fact, when you meet a teacher, thank them for their extraordinary effort in the classroom.

– Mary Greene

Torrance

Officials disregard SP tank risks

This week the Daily Breeze ran articles about public concerns with liquefied petroleum gas in pipelines under our neighborhoods. Information will be withheld.

Our homeowners in San Pedro have been fighting this battle over a much larger concern for 30-plus years. Your Sept. 15 article “SP residents call for removal of butane gas tanks” was misleading. Your reporter stated that there were 12 million gallons of butane in two aboveground tanks near our homes. There is twice this amount, 25 million gallons, in addition to a huge volume of propane. This facility, Rancho LPG, was the bad example that caused 1970s federal laws to be written concerning where these facilities could be placed.

Janice Hahn, along with her brother, former Los Angeles mayor and city attorney, should know about these laws. Her “resolution” calling for federal regulations is just her usual hot air. Councilwoman Hahn used to live within three blocks of these tanks. The most proactive she’s ever been is to move to upper South Shores.

Your article also quoted a port spokesman saying the port had made an “extensive effort” to move such hazardous liquid bulk tenants onto “Energy Island.” This is the landfill created in the harbor with taxpayer money to protect the taxpaying residents by relocating these tanks. We paid – but the hazards stayed.

What do you believe, the port or your eyes? The blame for leaving us vulnerable goes to many levels, beginning with Congresswoman Jane Harman. She should have watched over the creation of Energy Island, but instead she partied at the grand opening of the container terminal that now occupies this huge pier.

Regarding the statement of the tank’s owners that they adhere to “stringent” maintenance, inspections, etc.: According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, this facility is “grandfathered” and can’t be required to meet current codes for such a business. Additionally, children in schools just two blocks away aren’t required to be counted as possible casualties because they aren’t technically “residents.”

A disaster involving these tanks could involve thousands of people, but we are not allowed to know this information.

Our representatives know the risks and they are liable. “Shame on them” doesn’t quite cover it!

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